Book of Poetry

Doodle Soup
By John Ciardi
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company
Copyright 1985

Reading Level: Reading level 4

Suggested Delivery: Read aloud, independent read

Vocabulary: pedigreed (5), steeple (10), douse (11), chap (18), precisely (28), seldom (32), remarkable (48), various (54)

Awards: NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children in 1985

"Here is a delicious bowlful of nonsense and wisdom, cautionary tales and fantastic adventures. Master poet John Ciardi warns the dangers of taking baths:

Jimmy Jones was skin and bones.
The bone was mostly in his head.
He used the skin to take baths in,
But he caught cold and now
he's dead...

He gives lessons in manners

Someone told me someone said
You should never be bad until you've
been fed...

He explains why pigs cannot write poems, what happened when the ice cream truck got stuck, and the trouble when catching a bull moose ("It's mean. And also large.") Merle Nacht's zany illustrations perfectly capture the high-spirited humor of this lively collection."

This compliation of poems is humerous, entertaining, silly, relateable, and creative. This book of poems is a good read for children of all ages!

Pre-Reading: Befor reading the poems, the students can predict what the story can be about based on the title. Sometimes, creating reading lessons for a poetry book is difficult because the poems to follow the basic storyline and can sometimes be all over the place. The students can predict what the different poems may be about and even make their own predictions about what "doodle soup" is. Whether the students take the title literally or figurtively is up to them. Poetry involves opening up the mind and thinking outside the box. What is on the page may not be what the poem is really about. Encourage the students to think creatively when reading these poems and when predicting what the poems may be about. 

During Reading: As students read, they can mark down their favorite poems. They can choose the poems because they can relate to it, it was well written, or because it put a smile on their face. As students mark down their favorite poems they can keep in mind the question, "What was that poem really about?"

After Reading: This collection of poems includes a lot of fluency and rhyming words. After reading, the students can join together as a whole class and pick out two words in any poem they want that rhymed together. After each students has picked their two rhyming words, they can write them in marker on a sheet of chart paper. The teacher can then cut the words out and put them together on rhyming word bulliten board. When students wish to add more  rhyming words they will read in future stories, they can add them to the board. This way the board can continue to expand throughout the year.

Writing Activity: Students can write their own wacky, crazy poem just like the ones in the book. The students can make the poem a few lines long and then write a small description of what the poem is about and why they decided to write the poem about whatever topic they chose. Students can share these with the whole class or in small groups. 

Electronic Resources:

Rhyme Zone
This website can give students an
idea of rhyming words and that many 
words have rhyming words. This website 
allows students to type in any word, click
search, and any word that rhymes with 
the word they type in will pop up. They 
can also use this website to find definitions, 
synonyms, antonyms, consonants in the 
word, and many more. The website also
includes an option to organize the words 
by syllables or letters.

Poetry 4 Kids
This website is super fun for kids to 
learn how to write simple, but fun
poems. This website also includes 
fun poems, podcasts, dictionaries, 
and other fun resources to help
student learn that poetry is a fun
and silly way to write about 
anything!